One of the disadvantages of living in an overpopulated city relies on the rationalization of space and the high cost of the square meter. Another one is that in the metropolis, a fashion and culture core, trends are abundant and they establish like 20th century Latin-American dictatorships and, what is new today, will be no longer tomorrow (this is the 1920’s artistic avant-garde paradox, now called historical avant-gardes). How to maintain ourselves updated, contemporary? If we accept that the word cool is an empty category that must be filled, we will understand the reason why we end up accumulating objects that have become obsolete or out of date (ironically, the more modern the object is, the faster it will become old, and so, after a year –to be optimistic an not to say six months or two- we must purchase a new mobile phone for ours, new and now old, is G3 and not G4: the fatality of numbers is inevitable).
Next, we will analyze the best options to furnish reduced spaces, keeping in mind as well current interior design trends and furniture fashion; fashions and trends that, luckily, are kept stable for a longer period of time.
When it is about apartments and small apartments, one of the biggest challenges relies in furnishing a 1 bedroom and a 2 bedroom apartment (bathroom, kitchen and two rooms): to unite spaces and turning them multifunction and polyvalent. Obviously, the bathroom will still be a bathroom and the kitchen a kitchen; the majority will as well use a room as a bedroom and the second room as a living and dining room.
To optimize house spacing functionality is indispensable. To optimize house spacing intelligently, besides functionality we will also use illusion: the illusion of space and spaciality.
Transparent Glass Furniture –in spite of black furniture being the imposing trend- comes in hand to help generating the illusion of spaciality and to complement it with functionality, a transparent or frosted extending table . Depending on room angles, a round table (not extending), a square table or a rectangular table can be used.
Making the most out of corners: Corners are the most untamable spaces, especially when trying to furnish them. Nevertheless, there is furniture specifically designed for cornered spaces. Placing a corner TV Stand might be –depending on the room- a strategic election: in this angle you can increase TV visibility from every point in the room. It is also to be kept in mind the height of the furniture: low TV Stands will not only be more comfortable for keeping your eyes leveled with the TV but will as well reduce the wall space used by both the stand an the TV. A corner PC Desk is also a useful way to optimize space and, for students, a PC desk with shelving for books, folders and photocopies.
Storing: As it was said before, object accumulation is one of the modern man’s characteristics (as well as of ferrets). It is not only about clothing, books, CD’s, but also all those little thing that are necessary but annoying: wires, plugs, batteries, brochures, bills, etc, etc, etc. Storing furniture is a good solution (CD Racks , bookcases, display cabinets and sideboards), but in rationed spaces a lot of furniture will not fit or will otherwise overload the room. This is the reason why each piece of furniture should be carefully chosen with awareness not only of style but of storing capability. Not to overfurnish the living-dining room, every dusted nook must be seized. Underbed storage like drawers for the room, hanging shelves for books and magazines, or corner shelf units are some examples.
• Decoration: For some, not feeling guilty for not exhibiting in their homes little objects as statuettes, ashtrays and general ornaments when they are given as a gift. For others, trying to resist the temptation of acquiring these types of objects once they have accumulated many, unless you are trying to accomplish a modern and cloying rococo style. A couple of ornaments as statues or jars are not damaging but it should always be kept in mind the existence of other more apt decoration objects: paintings are one of them, since they use wall space instead of the little available surface. Mirrors are an ace under the sleeve and the great illusionist trick for they not only amplify light but also multiply spaces. Versailles’ Palace Hall of Mirrors is a great example: the mirrors reproduce the windows in front of them turning themselves into windows that look to the Palace garden. (For mirror fans, mirror furniture is also widely available in today’s markets)
Many times it is considered inevitable to associate fashion and design with frivolity and shallowness, above everything because of some decorators that we may see on TV that use words as “gorgeous”, “fantastic” or “fabulous” repeatedly. Yet, we must understand that interior design can also be seen as a means to reach “inner peace”: zen and feng shui trends account for the faith in interior design to induce mental states. Without being extremists, and without stating that interior design will solve all our problems (including the mental ones), we are going to accept, with naturalist writers, that the surroundings determines the individual. Since we are already influenced enough by society, family, education –or the lack of it-, religion, the media and well, the spatiotemporal place that we occupy (always remembering that we are born into a system and a state of things that is imposed to us and that is very difficult to change), the only place where we can choose what to do and how to do it with absolute freedom is in our homes, our inviolable private and intimate spaces.
